In over my head! 4 mounted orchids

[Amateur_expert]

Originally Posted by Brooke

Are you aware of how big the C. amethyglossa gets? A mature plant can be 3' in length. You didn't mention which Vanda you mounted but many of them can also get several feet in length.

I agree a Phal with the high light plants will probably not be very happy.

Brooke

The Vanda is a denisoniana. I might take the little broken root Phal ludd off and remount it somewhere more appropriate which will give the V. more vertical growing room. The whole point is to get the wood to not be seen at all...all green and orchids.

The catt I'm counting on it getting big. The lights that are on there now can be stretched out a bit, but worse comes to worse, I'll just mount them to the wall above the setup to shine down and get everything lit.

It looks like the concenus is that the Phal isn't going to be happy so probs be remounted to another area. What is too bright? Next to west window?

---------- Post added at 04:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:43 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Leafmite

If you want a nice Phal that doesn't mind being mounted, try Phalaenopsis amabilis. Mine is mounted and, while I have removed other Phals that came mounted as they weren't happy, that one is very happy.

Would that live under the current conditions?

[DeaC]

Hi and welcome! This is just a suggestion. I would read up on any and all orchids that I have or are interested in before deciding how to grow. Many factors to consider of where and how they grow in nature.Gives you an indication on light,humidity,size,growing medium,etc. After many yrs,I still doubt myself and try new things . Good luck-the info here on OB is first rate but you must find what works for YOU!

[Amateur_expert]

Originally Posted by DeaC

Hi and welcome! This is just a suggestion. I would read up on any and all orchids that I have or are interested in before deciding how to grow. Many factors to consider of where and how they grow in nature.Gives you an indication on light,humidity,size,growing medium,etc. After many yrs,I still doubt myself and try new things . Good luck-the info here on OB is first rate but you must find what works for YOU!

Hello. Thank you for the advice! I've already got the orchids so that ship has sailed :/ As far as I could tell from my research, these four seem well adapted to mounting and the conditions I could provide (The phal defies my research though). That said, these guys should all be doing decent. The 2 LEDs provide what would be considered "shaded light" in comparison to the sun. They are also 5000k or 6000k which is in the right kelvin for vegetative growth. The humidity in the house is typically 50-60% so that is somewhere in the area they like. I spray them in the AM, and possibly a few times during the day. I look forward to reading everyone's comments.

[AnonYMouse]

FWIW, I agree with all the comments. I'll be more specific though.

The Catt, Blc. and Vanda want light intensity in excess of 2000 fc. The Phal wants light in the 800-1500 fc range. Although the conversion isn't direct, I believe 800 lumens is too low for any of the plants mentioned.

The Catt, Blc. and Vanda want to dry out fast and get watered again. The Phal wants to dry out slower. They all like temps 75°F and above and higher RH, they will tolerate lower.

The Catt and Vanda will get LARGE, will overwhelm the mount. Dividing a mount isn't like dividing a potted plant. In nature, these plants are growing on tree trunks, forks and branches but not all together.

Just sayin'.

[Amateur_expert]

Originally Posted by AnonYMouse

FWIW, I agree with all the comments. I'll be more specific though.

The Catt, Blc. and Vanda want light intensity in excess of 2000 fc. The Phal wants light in the 800-1500 fc range. Although the conversion isn't direct, I believe 800 lumens is too low for any of the plants mentioned.

The Catt, Blc. and Vanda want to dry out fast and get watered again. The Phal wants to dry out slower. They all like temps 75°F and above and higher RH, they will tolerate lower.

The Catt and Vanda will get LARGE, will overwhelm the mount. Dividing a mount isn't like dividing a potted plant. In nature, these plants are growing on tree trunks, forks and branches but not all together.

Just sayin'.

Hello! Thank you for the specifics. There are two 800 lumen LEDs. I have to buy a light meter soon so I can tell for sure. But in any case that is 1,600 lumens - diffused to the whole plant area. If it proves to be just on the short side of enough light, will the plants show that eventually? Weeks, months, years? My only concern is that they were about 8 feet from my 1000W MH grow light and at least one of them got a sunburn - all on accident I didn't think the lumens had that much punch that far away.

I see what you're saying about having them all together. The goal is to overwhelm the mount - but not at the expense of the life of the others. The mount won't break or split up and I believe you in how hard it would be to separate cut of over-growth and have it live. I've got metal bracing throughout the interior epoxied and screwed in place then rigid foam poured in to solidify everything in place. Thank you for the advice on the watering. I will keep that in mind and remove sphag in time once the wrinkles are out.

[AnonYMouse]

800 lumens + 800 lumens = 800 lumens

[Amateur_expert]

Originally Posted by AnonYMouse

800 lumens + 800 lumens = 800 lumens

Interesting. I didn't know that. One LED is dimmer than two, so I assumed it's brighter, but it's not?

What do you think about the rest of the post other than the lumens?

[Leafmite]

You asked:

Would that live under the current conditions?

I don't know much about lighting. This is my first year and I went with T5HO (6500K, 54W) lights. They work very well for my Cattleyas and other high light orchids. You could buy a two foot one on Amazon for a pretty decent price.

They are right about that Cattleya becoming very, very large. I planned to buy one quite a few years ago until I realized how large it would become. Some smaller, but fragrant options are: a Cattleya Mini Purple, Cattleya luteola, Cattleya dolosa, Cattleya walkeriana, or Cattleya aclandiae. Then there are many, many small complex hybrids that would be perfect for that mount. I just bought Cattleya Your Mine 'NN' which is quite small but has lovely fragrant blooms. I think it is going to be a frequent bloomer, too. Pot. Burana Beauty 'Burana' is another small, fragrant one that blooms two to three times a year for me.
I think it is pretty sweet what you are doing.

[Amateur_expert]

Originally Posted by AnonYMouse

FWIW, I agree with all the comments. I'll be more specific though.

The Catt, Blc. and Vanda want light intensity in excess of 2000 fc. The Phal wants light in the 800-1500 fc range. Although the conversion isn't direct, I believe 800 lumens is too low for any of the plants mentioned.

The Catt, Blc. and Vanda want to dry out fast and get watered again. The Phal wants to dry out slower. They all like temps 75°F and above and higher RH, they will tolerate lower.

The Catt and Vanda will get LARGE, will overwhelm the mount. Dividing a mount isn't like dividing a potted plant. In nature, these plants are growing on tree trunks, forks and branches but not all together.

Just sayin'.

Wait a tick - So I was curious about the fc to lm conversion. This is the formula I foun: 1 foot-candle [ft·cd, fc] = 1 lumen/foot² [lm/ft²].

So that means 800fc = 800lm p/sq. ft.?

At 8 or so feet from a 1000MH 6000K DE grow light it gave the Blc Sanyang a sunburn which was just a little brighter than the LEDs normally. So if it was just a bit brighter, how can that give a sunburn if that should be closer to what the orchid lives with? I don't understand this. Do you have some links to explain your findings so I can read them?

[lotis146]

I don't grow under lights (though I know it's in my future) however I do know whether with natural sunlight or artificial lighting if a plant is not yet adapted (ie moving from a lower light to higher light) it can be burned by light that is actually suitable for it.


Sorry if you've already mentioned this and I overlooked it, but how long have you been growing orchids? Do you have others besides these four, or are these your first?

I ask b/c I think the point that people are getting at by repeating that those plants get BIG is not just that they'll get big like grow all over the mount big but be big plants PERIOD. I'm only saying all of this if you are rather new to orchid growing. I'm just a year in myself but one of the first things I learned when I visited an orchid greenhouse was that all the Catt blooms I liked the most - from their online pics - grew on plants I was not interested in. Some Catts are big plants all around therefore mounting a couple of really big plants could get tricky in the long run. That said some orchids aren't such fast growers.

Another point I want to share is that there's a lot more to growing orchids than keeping them alive, I'm sure you know that. But I've found that there are all stages of orchid growing from just keeping them alive to reblooming them to getting impressive blooms from them. Impressive growth and blooms require doing more than just keeping them happy, trust me I've learned the hard way with plants that try for two spikes but decide they can only grow the one [under my conditions].

I've just acquired my first Vanda and it makes me somewhat nervous b/c apparently they like rather high humidity and in the world of orchids 50-60 is not high. I certainly admire your efforts to create something awesome for her, just beware you may benefit from more research on what species are going to be best together and easiest for you both to care for.

Also the Phal would be happy in an east or west facing windows. Good luck.